When it comes to keeping records demonstrating how and when your
company acquired software licenses, you can never have too much of
a good thing. Businesses typically have good procedures in place to
track things like invoices and license certificates, but those
kinds of documents do not always tell the whole story. Even if they
did, having some backup can be helpful when purchases fall through
the cracks. Those cracks can be very costly in the event of an
audit, when auditors will expect the company either to demonstrate
what it owns or else to be prepared to purchase (or re-purchase)
licenses to cover any gaps discovered as a result of the
investigation.
The "gold standard" for license documentation is an
invoice from an authorized license reseller or distributor that
includes the date of the purchase, the name, edition and version of
the product, the quantity of licenses purchased, the price paid,
and, ideally, the name of the company purchasing the
